Arrived!!!

It's Saturday early afternoon and I'm in the Alamogordo library. Hopefully I'll be able to blog from my apartment on Monday night and include some pictures.....

I left St. Louis early Thursday morning and drove without many breaks (my bladder really has a great holding capacity!!!) for 12 hours to Amarillo, Texas.... Lots of rain and tractor-trailers on the road (not a good combination!!!) which made it a challenging drive for somebody without much road trip experience.... -I LOVE MY SUBARU!!!!!- Friday driving was much easier (6 hours only) in sunshine through beautiful New Mexico. There's not a lot of towns in Eastern New Mexico and just crossing the Texas/New Mexico border was almost magical. It felt a little like the Serengeti in Tanzania with it's dry planes of 'nothing-ness'..... I remember liking the Serengeti landscape exactly for that reason too, whilst most people preferred the fertile NgoroNgoro Crater area.

Alamogordo itself is very much just a small town with plenty -too many?!?!?!- fast food and motel chains. But somehow in less than one day, I managed to find a health food store (Nature's pantry), the local farmers market (which rocks with people on Saturday mornings) and at least 3 little individually owned coffee places....
The surrounding area is just georgeous; the mountains (Sacramento Mountains about 10 miles East of Alamogordo) are beautiful and I can't wait to go hiking tomorrow....
At least 4 people have told me fall is the best time of year to be here. Yesterday was about 78 in the afternoon and about 60 at night I think.

I drove past the hospital which looks fairly new and spread out over just one or 2 levels (I guess one thing they definitely have enough of is space!!!!). I found a nice fitness center close to the hospital with a good selection of classes so I think I'll sign up with them soon.

The hotel complex is very nice with a great pool. I have a 2 bedroom apartment on the second floor with a little balcony. As the furniture hadn't arrived yet when I got there yesterday, I got to know some of my neighbors, the manager and managers assistant, so I'm up on the town- and apartment complex gossip.........;-).
There's a crew -staying at the complex- filming some movie for a few months. I think I'll hang out at the pool some this afternoon and see if I'll "accidentally run into" some of them.....

So far, so good for now.... The transition has been much easier than I had anticipated. Hopefully the work transition will be similar.... It definitely feels good to be here!!

For the rest of today, I'm planning to unpack some more stuff, transition the spare bedroom into a meditation room, cook something healthy (after all the bad stuff on the road I have the biggest fruit and vegetable craving!!!!) and get organized for work on Monday.
Tomorrow I'm checking out a Buddhist meditation place in Tularosa (about 10 miles north of here) and drive into the mountains to hike.....

Lots of plans, lots of excitement still,... I'll keep you updated!!!